Perforating machine



June 13, 1933. A. w. MILLS 1,914,275

PERFORMING MACHINE Filed Oct. 17, 1929 3 Sheets-Sheet l lmlllll n ullmIl June 13 1933 A. w. MILLS PERFORATING MACHINE Filed Oct. 1'7, 1929 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 June 13, 1933. A, w. MILLS PERFORMING MACHINE Filed Oct. 17, 1929 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 Patented June 13, 1933 UNITEosr-ATES PATENT OFFICE.

ALBERT W. MILLS, OE EAsT ORANGE, NEW JERSEY, AssreNoR To THE TABULATING MACHINE COMPANY, OEENEIOOTT, NEW YORK, A CORPORATION OE NEW JERSEY rEREoImTING( MACHINE Application filed october 17, 1929. serial No. 400,275.

This invention relates to card perforating machines and more particularly to the type of perfora-ting machine kknown asza gang punch. 'l i- One object -of the invention isto produce a machine which maybe setto perfor-atev holes in certain positions in the cards as the cards are removed from the machine-'one after another. i 1 Y Another object is to provide a machine of this character which will be' of simple construction, small in size and .rapid'and ac-V curate in operation.

Referring to the drawings wherein I have sho-wnvwhat I now consider to V*be the pre'- ferred form of my invention; Y

Fig. 1 is a sectional side elevationof the machine. Y Fig. 2 is a detail of mechanisms ofthe machine including the card stop for locating the card in position to be punched.

Fig. 3 is a detail of the operating clutch and its control magnet. Fig. 4 is a detail of one of thepunches, the discharge mechanism and a control contact. Fig. 5 is a wiring diagram of the operation control Circuit. i f Referring to Fig. 1 the cards 1 are stacked within the supply hopp'erf2 and held down by a weight 3. vThe car-ds' are adaptedl tobe fed through aslot 4 by a card picker 5 slid'- ably mounted at 6 in theframe member 7. vAn

arm 8 pivoted to the base 9 of the machineV at 1() is connected by pin and slot at 11fto the cardpicker frame 12. A link 13 connected to the arm 8 straddles the cam shaft 14 and is provid'edwith a cam follower roller 15 cooperating with a cam 16 mounted on the camshaft. A spring 17 holds the follower against its cam. For each cycle of the Yshaft 14 the picker 5V moves once to the left and back to the right. y In moving to the left it feeds the bottom card from thestack to the card feed rollers 18, 18. The feed rolleis18, 197 20 are mounted on shafts 21 having fixed thereon worm wheels 22 meshing with-worms 23 iXed on shaft 24.

Y This shaft has fixed thereon at -itsright end a bevel gear *25,1 meshingwith a Vbevel gear 26 fixed to the driven shaftr27 Thev latter shaft also carries a bevel pinion 28 meshing-with a bevel pinion 29 on the cam shaft 14 for driving the latter. The drivenv shaft 27 and the parts operated thereby are normally idle while the motor 30 and driving shaft 31 connected thereto through reduction gearing 32 are normally running. f Fast on the driven shaft 27 is an arm 33 carrying a 4clutch pawl 34 pivoted thereto at 35. A spring 36 connected between the arm 33 and the pawl 34 tends to rock the pawl into cooperation. with a clutch disk 37 mounted on the driving shaft 31. A stop arm 38 is'adapted to hold the clutch pawl 34 disengaged from the disk 37. The stop arm is pivoted at 39 and is integral with the armature 40 of the 1 projection 44 of the pawl 34. When the magnety 41 is energized it will rock the stop 38 away from pawl 34 permitting the latter to bev moved into cooperation with the clutch Vdisk 37. The disk is constantly rotating and as soon as the notch 37 reaches the end of the pawl 34 the latter will drop into the notch and the arm 33 will be carried around by the'disk thus rotating the shaft 27 and the cam shaft 14.

Presuming the magnet 41 to be energized for a moment and then deenergized the parts will becomeclutched for one revolution after which they will become de-clutched. In'

other words, the stop 38 will release the pawl 34 and will then in turn be released by the magnet 41 to return to normal position so that as the clutch parts complete one revolution the projection 44 will strike a shoulder on the stop 38 and be rocked out of engagement of the notch 37 of the clutch disk. The endof" arm 33 on the driven shaft 27 willalso strike the shoulder on the stop 38 to cause the shaft to stop in a definite position.l The latch 43 then springs over the back of the arm 33 as well as the projection 44. This prevents the parts from springing back. It also serves to hold the pawl 34 and arm 33 in the relative positions shown in Fig. 3 so that the spring 36 will not rock pawl 34 upon its ypivot 35 to cause re-engagement of the clutch.

lVhen the cam shaft 14 is caused to turn one revolution the card picker will feed the bottom card to the feed rollers 18, 18 which are now turning for the one cycleof operation of the cam shaft. The feed rollers will now feed the card between the fixed plates and the upper and lower die plates 46, 47. The card will be fed forward to the feed rollers 19, 19 which will continue the feeding of the card until the leading edge thereof strikes the gate 48. This gate is carried by an arm 49 pivoted on shaft 50. The shaft is connected by an arm 51 to a link 52 which in turn is connected at-its opposite end to an arm.53 pivoted at 54 to the frame of the machine. Arm 53 has a caln follower roller 55 cooperating with a cam 56 on the cam shaft 14. Spring 57 holds the parts in the position of Fig. 2 with the follower 55y against its cam 56. Before the card reaches its position for punching the cam 56 rocks the arm 53 to move the stop gate 48 from the positionfof Fig. 2 to that of Fig. 1. lThe card is now in position to be punched which operation is effected by the raising of the die plates 46, 47 to press the card upwardly against the punches 58. The die plates 46, 47 are connected at their ends to brackets 59 and are slidable upon guide rods 60 mounted in supports 61 and 62. Connected to the brackets 59 are toggle arms 63 which are also pivoted at 64 to the basev9. A link 65 connected to the toggle arms at 66 has a cam follower .roller 67 at its right end workin g in a cam groove 68 of box cam 69 fixed on the cam shaft 14. @ne cycle of operation of the cam shaft will thus cause the cam 69 to turn one revolution moving the link 65 to the left and back to the right. This will raise the die plates 46, 47 and then lower them back to their normal position of Fig. 1. Punches 58 arev mounted in a plate 70 and reach into corresponding holes in the upper guide plate 46. Pins 71 and 72 are adapted to hold the punches in position.

Where the usual-Hollerith card is to be perforated having twelve hole positions in each vertical row and a plurality of such vertical rows there will be twelve punches corresponding to each vertical row of perforation positions on the card and as many rows as there are columns on a card. Above each punch is a stop 73 mounted to move up and down in the frame plates 7 4. A compression spring 75 on each stop tends to raise the stops to the position of Fig. 1. A latching tooth 76 on each stop is vadapted to cooperate with a latch projection 77 carried by a slide 78. There is one slide 78 for each row of twelve punch stops 73. A spring` 79 tends to pull the stop 78 to` the left as in Figs. l and 4. Vhen a stop 73 is depressed the tooth 76 thereon will cam the slide 78 to the right until it passes below the projection 77. The slide 78 will then slip back to the left over the tooth 78 and lock the stop in its set position as in Fig. 4. To change a setting in any col umn it is only necessary to depress the desired stop 73. This will move the latching slide 78 to the right releasing a stop that may be latched down to permit it to rise whereupon the slide will spring back to the left latching the newly depressed stop. All of the stops may be released by the depression of a key 80. This key engages arm 81 connected to a bail 82 which reaches across the downwardly projecting riOht hand ends of the slides 78. Depression of the key 8O will thus move all of the slides to the right to release all ofthe stops that may be latched down permitting them to rise. A spring 83 will move the bail 82 back to normal position when the key 81 is released. yThe slides 78 may be individually actuated to release their stops without the setting of a new stop by pushing the upwardly projecting left hand ends thereof. The punches 58 are, of course, spaced the same distance as the hole positions on the card. The stops 73 may be in direct alignn ment with the punches and therefore spaced the same distance. The setting of the stops which are thus very closely spaced apart may be effected by a stylus or the rubber end of a pencil.

In order to set two or more stops in a single row each of the stops to be set may be depressed at the saine time sov that the latching slides 78 will spring over the teeth 76 of both l stops to hold them depressed. When the stops corresponding to all of the holes that are to be perforated in the cards have been set and the-die plates 46, 47 are raised with a card between them the card will in turn raise all of the punches 58 except those that strike stops 73. Wherever the stops 73 have been set the corresponding pun ches will engage the stops and be prevented from rising and the card will. be perforated in the corresponding positions. After a card has been fed from the hopper 2 and is stopped by the gate 48 the die plates are then raised and lowered. Following this the gate 48 is rocked to the open position of Fig. 2 and the feed rolle-rs 19, 19

carry the card out to the rollers 20, 20. The latter rollers then feed the card between the plates 84 into a receiving tray 85 as shown at 1 (Fig. 4).' This is the end of one cycle of operation of the machine and the machine stops.`

In Fig. 4 the leading edge of the card has engaged the lower upward projection 86 of the receiving tray and has been stopped.

The rear edge of the card has not yet emerged from between the guide plates 84. In this position the rear edge-of the card engages an arm V87 pivoted at 88. Connected to the larm 87 is an arm 89 cooperating with a leaf 90 of electric contacts 91. When the card is in 1:1*

the position shown in Fig. 4 depressing the arm 87 the contacts 91 are held open. When the card is removed from the tray the arm 87 will be rocked by the action of the contact leaf 90 to its upper position and the contacts 91 will close. Contacts 91 as shown in Fig. 5 are included in the circuit of the magnet 41. In series with these contacts is another' set of contacts 92 controlled by a cam 93 on the cam shaft 14. At the end of the operating cycle of shaft 14 the cam 93 is in the position of Fig. 2 and the contacts 92 are closed but the card just punched holds contacts 91 open.

TW hen the card is removed from the position of Fig. 4 permitting contacts 91 to close the magnet 41 will become energized releasing the clutch elements and the driven shaft 2T will commence to rotate. Cam 93 will then turn and contacts 92 will open and will not be closed again until after contacts 91 are opened by the next card. The magnet is thus -deenergized eXcept for the short time necessary to release the clutch parts and the stop 38 will be in position to effect declutching at the end of the cycle. An operator who is perfor-ating cards on the well known Hollerith type of punch may vset up the machine here disclosed to punch holes repesenting the date or a group designation number or any other perforations that are to be repeated on several cards. As there is no card in the position 1 the contacts 91 will` be closed so that when the motor is 'ted the first card will be punched and fcc. to position l whereupon the machine will stop. The operator will thenY remove the card from the position of Fig. 4 and place it in the liolleritli punch to enter additional data. las soon as the card is removed from the tray 85 the machine operates to feed and perforate another card after which the card fed to the position of Fig. 4 and the machine again stops. Fach time the operator removes the card another one is produced in readiness. If it is desired to punch a stack of .cn-ds with the data set up in the machine this may be done hy lowering the tray 85 from the fuil line position of 4 to the d-rttod line position. rllhis is readily done by ro .img the tray countercloclmfise about its pivot 98 on supporting` bracket arms 97 so ar; to detach it at 98 and permit the tray to .rock down with arms 97 rocking about the 99. The cards will now be fed out from the guide plates 84 as they are punched thus releasing thc arm 87 and permitting con- 9i. to close to 17e-energize the control gnet 4l to keep the machine ruiming. .-1 b v raising the switch arm 94 the plunger 'will hold the contacts continuously in closed position so that the pressure of the card upon arm 87 will not open them. The machine will then continue through repeated cycles untilL stopped by the operator.

"The card feed rollers 18, 19', 20 are not driven -directly by the shaft 24 but are caused to rotate by frictional Contact with the rollers 18, 19, 20 or by contact with thc card when the card is pressed between the rollers and the lower rollers are rotating. rlhe Lipper feed rollers 19 are mounted` on arms 100 (Fig. 2) pivoted at 101 to the lupper die plate 48 or to the frame of the n'iachine and are pulled resilicntly downw rd by spring 102. Thus when the die'plates 46, 47 are yraised to punch the card these rollers 19" which are above the card will also be raised. The card will at t iisk time be out of contact with the lower rollers 19. As soon as the die plates are again lowered the card re-engages the feed rollers so that when the gate 48 is lowered the card Awill be fed out. If, when the switch 94 isset to causethe machine to operate continuously, a card is held between the plates 84 by the arm 87, the machine will continue to operate and the neXt card will push the one out that has remained between ythe plates 84. The projection 86 on the tray 85 is part of a plate 85a and is slidably attached to the main plate 851) of the tray. When the tray is in its lower position the plate 850j may be moved outwardly to bring the upward projection 8G in alignment with the projection 86a of the main plate 85?) as in the dotted line position.

I claim:

1. In a card perforating machine, a plurality of punches, means for feeding cards to the punches, means for feeding cards from the punches, a tray adapted to receive the cards when fed from the punches and means operative Whenthe tray is in one position for causing the machine to stop when a card enters the tray and for causing the machine to continue to operate when the tray is in another position.

2. In a card punching machine, a set of punches, a supply card holder, a receiving tray, means for feeding cards from the holder to the punches, means for effecting punching of the cards by said punches, means for effecting feeding of the cards from the punches to said tray and. means controlled by a card in the tray for controlling the operation of the machine and adapted when a card is removed from the tray to cause operation of said feeding means and said punching means.

3. In a machine of the class described, a set of punches, means for selectively setting the punches for operation, means for locking the set punches in operative position, means for feeding cards to the punches, means for opera-tino' the machine for effecting punching of the cards, means for feeding a punched card from the punches, a control member operated by a card fed from the punches for controlling the operation of the machine and means for locking said control member against the control of the cards so that the machine will operate continuously.

4. In a record perfor-ating machine, a pluv i'ality of punches, means for feeding cards to the punches, operating means for causing the cards to be punched, means for feeding cards from the punches and means comprising electric circuit contacts adapted to he opened by a card fed from the punches to stop the operation of the machine and settahle means for locking said contacts closed so that the cards will not cause the machine to stop.

In testimony whereof I hereto aiix my signature.

ALBERT IV. MILLS. 

